On the left, Donald Trump is talking nonsense. On the right, Elon Musk is talking nonsense. This Saturday, October 5, the two friends and campaign partners combined their talents to give us a two-man show combining populist ravings, conspiracy allusions, racist connotations and hatred of wokists, in the town of Butler, Pennsylvania, the very place where the former president had been targetted by an assassination attempt on July 13. Fascinating? Yes. Worrying? Yes.
For the occasion, Musk applied his usual dress code. Like many of the world's top tech executives, who have settled the question with a quasi-scientific formula, the Tesla CEO always dresses from head to toe in black, which allows him, he says, "not to waste time in the morning" when getting dressed. Is Musk a radical? Although Tesla launched its Cybertruck in a single color, in the manner of Henry Ford, who declared: "You can choose any color you like for your car, as long as it's black," the brand has since extended the vehicle's chromatic range.
One element breaks the monotony of this silhouette. Musk's little leap of joy reveals both a belly fueled by Ozempic, the anti-diabetic drug transformed into a slimming treatment by a plethora of American celebrities, and an oval-shaped steel belt buckle adorned with a heavy star. Musk's favorite accessory honors Texas, where Tesla's factories have recently set up shop. The cowboy buckle in question is discreetly emblazoned with the slogan "Don't Mess With Tesla," inspired by the historic "Don't Mess With Texas."
To polish off this ranchero look, Musk donned a pair of black leather cowboy boots, fitted with a Cuban heel. Recognizable by its rounded shape and steep slope, the latter is historically reputed to encourage leg movement, guaranteeing impeccable support, even when the body is tilted. That's why Cuban dancers adopted it, and why cowboys, looking for a firm grip on the ground when catching cattle, made it an important part of their wardrobe.
For this grand return to Butler, Trump and Musk were separated from their thousands of supporters by a bulletproof pane of glass. The principle of laminated glass was invented completely by accident in 1903 by a Dutch-born French researcher by the name of Edouard Bénédictus. When he dropped a jar filled with a solution of cellulose nitrate, he noticed that the glass broke inside but did not shatter. Serendipity at its best.
Translation of an original article published in French on lemonde.fr; the publisher may only be liable for the French version.